Chapter Eleven

 

 

 

How can things go to hell in such a short amount of time? One week had come and gone and they were still no closer to figuring shit out, nor had the scouts found any positive leads into where Jory was being held. Just when they’d thought they were getting things back to normal, something had come along to blow them out of the water.

“I think we may have to put our ceremony on hold.” As much as Eric hated saying it, he thought he should bring up the obvious. “We don’t have time for a big elaborate party when we have to concentrate on finding and rescuing these prisoners.”

“No time for the party, but we’re having our ceremony. I don’t care if we have a private one here at home with none but our family and friends as witnesses,” Tagh said. “I’m not trying to be an ass about it, but I need this ceremony, or you’ll soon meet my darker nature. I sense it surfacing with each passing day.”

Worry filled Eric. “Then how do we do this? I want you at your very best if it comes to fighting.”

“Lara will officiate. The vows I gave you must be memorized. You can’t vary from them. They are very important to the binding of our souls. After the words are spoken, I will slice our hands so our blood may be joined forever, giving you the ability to call me back from the brink of death,” Tagh explained.

“You were serious about that whole ‘brink of death’ thing?”

“I cannot lie.”

Eric smiled. “Yeah, I know that. It’s so overwhelming to me that I’ll have that much power over you.”

“That’s what being a true mate means.”

Their conversation was interrupted by a slightly ticked-off princess. “You might get out of the party for now, but I refuse to cancel it. We’ll settle for a rescheduling instead. Actually, this might be a good thing. It’ll give us more time for the planning, especially if we have more warriors to present to the world. Have you spoken to Malaya yet?”

“Agar has agreed to let us talk to Malaya today, though he insists on being by her side,” Tagh said.

“That’s a good thing, babe. It’ll show Malaya we care about her wellbeing. Hopefully she’ll remember how they brought her here, and better yet, how to get back to wherever she was held,” Eric said as he patted Tagh on the thigh. “In fact, they should be here any second. Do you want to stay, Princess?”

Lara gave him a ‘why do you think I’m here’ look.

“Okay, sorry I asked.” Eric held up his hands in surrender.

They didn’t have long to wait until Agar led Malaya into the room. He really did seem very protective over his charge, making sure she felt comfortable and didn’t need anything. In the same vein, Malaya seemed to be lapping up the attention.

“Let’s get this over with. Malaya still needs to rest,” Agar said bluntly.

“Umm, Malaya, we’re wondering if you remember who held you and how to get back to where they are holding the other prisoners?” Eric decided to just come right out and ask the two most important questions. Then added, “Were there other warriors besides you and your brother?”

Malaya nodded. “In my dorm, there were three other warrior beings, a vampire and a day warden. Cookie’s girl told me there were five other dorms, some with more inhabitants than mine, but I definitely wasn’t the only warrior. I’m sorry, no one in my dorm had the name Jory, and we didn’t get to mix with the other dorms.”

“Do you know why they were holding you?” Eric asked. Sadness washed over him that she didn’t know Jory. If she had, it would have made things so much easier.

Malaya shuddered. “We were nothing more than slaves. Some dorms cleaned, some dorms were trained as soldiers and others were sold purely for the sexual needs of others. Thankfully, that wasn’t my dorm, but I think it may have been my brother’s.” Her voice filled with sadness. “I pray that it wasn’t.”

“Would you know how to get back there?” Tagh asked.

“No. They knocked me out to bring me here. I woke up chained to the ground. I never saw anything besides my dorm and the training yard.” She began to tremble. “But I can draw what I remember of the inside of the institution.”

Eric caught on her words. “Is that what they called the place—the institution?”

Malaya shook her head. “We called it that, but the cook’s girl called it Tekeste.”

“Why does that name sound familiar?” the princess asked as she frowned in concentration. “I know that name. It’ll drive me nuts until it comes to me.”

“Vernon Tekeste and his wife Ursula were on vacation at the Doric resort when they were set upon by an out-of-control vampire. The rogue vampire was blinded by bloodlust and he killed ninety-nine percent of the people staying at the resort. Apparently, Vernon and Ursula were the only ones who survived the whole ordeal,” Agar recited as if he was reading the information from a sheet of paper.

Stunned, Eric asked, “How the hell do you know that?”

“Because my cousin’s clutch was sent out to stop the rogue by any means necessary. Shayle and his brother, Christos, lost their lives that day. They’re considered heroes in the Crilly Clan.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Eric spoke softly. He hung his head in silence for a minute before asking, “So, how do we find this Tekeste fella?”

Agar shook his head. “We don’t. As ironic as it seems, they were killed only a month later. Some kind of lesser demon broke into their house and slaughtered them in their sleep. They were survived by their son, who, as luck would have it, had been away on a business trip with his wife at the time of his parents’ deaths.”

“Knowing your parents were attacked and murdered by non-humans might just have been the catalyst to inspire a human to start their own paranormal zoo,” Eric said.

“If you want my opinion, I think the son hired the vampire to attack the resort then hired the demon to finish the damn job. As soon as the parents were out of the picture, Richard and Carol Tekeste became very wealthy people, with more land and money than a person could poke a stick at.”

Tagh pinched the bridge of his nose and Eric wondered if his mate had a headache. “I wonder why this never came up before the guild.”

“It did and Sumar sent the Crilly Clan out to deal with it.”

“But why wouldn’t he inform the rest of us about what was going on?”

Am I the only one seeing the obvious? “Because if Sumar and Jordon were mates, Sumar would have informed Jordon on who he could contact for moneymaking jobs. They probably would have exploited the humans the same way the humans used them to acquire all of their specimens.” Turning to Malay, he added, “No offense meant.”

“Cookie’s girl is called Carolina. Maybe she’s really the wife and Cookie is the son of the murdered couple?”

“Makes sense,” the princess said, “but it still doesn’t tell us where they are.”

“But we now have a couple of names we can start with. They can’t have erased their existence. We’ll find them eventually.”

Eric stood and walked over to the bar area and pulled out a sketchpad and the pencils they kept there for the triplets. “Here. If you can draw what you remember, that would be a great help.”

“It’s okay, baby. We’ll find your brother and free him soon. I promise,” Agar stated.

With a determined nod at her mate, Malaya set to work. As her hand flew over the page, one of the most realistic buildings he’d ever seen came to life. It wasn’t one Eric knew, mainly because she sketched the inside of the building. There seemed to be buildings inside the walls of the structure with the center only bare ground. It reminded Eric of an old school or possible a sporting stadium.

When she’d done, Malaya flipped the page and drew the face of a woman, and Eric wondered if this could be Cookie’s girl. Malaya didn’t stop there. She drew many faces and Eric realized they were the faces of the people she’d seen every day. These were her dorm mates. Her family. Sadly, none of them resembled the Jory in his dreams.

“You’re really good. These are going to be a great help. Don’t forget to draw your brother, so if we see him, we know to bring him back here to you,” Eric encouraged.

A nervous rush of tension in the room filled the room. He knew everyone wanted to rescue these poor people being held captive, but a bigger part of the tension permeated the air around his mate. Turning to the princess, he asked, “So, Princess, how soon can you perform the ceremony needed to keep Tagh’s darker nature at bay?”

“How about you give me three hours to make some calls and I’ll have you and Murtagh wed and bonded?” she said as she stood up.

“Sounds like a plan. I suppose I should go and find something to wear,” Eric said cheerfully.

The princess threw back her head and laughed. “No robes needed. The warrior mating ceremony is done in the nude.”

“She’s kidding, right? My body is nowhere near the shape I need it to be in for other people to see me naked, even if they are family and friends.” Panic swamped him as he grabbed at Tagh’s hands.

“I might not be able to, but Lara can lie. Nakedness is not a prerequisite of our marriage ceremony. We can reserve that for the bedroom.”

Eric breathed a sigh of relief. “Naked in the bedroom I can handle. Naked with all my friends watching is a whole other story.”

“We’ll be wearing clothes.”

“I’m just making sure.” Eric paced around the room again until he once more stood in front of his mate. “Will the ceremony take effect immediately? Will you start to feel better?”

Tagh leaned back against the sofa and smiled up at him. “It’ll take a couple of days, but this will slowly start reversing my darker nature.”

“What are you talking about?” Agar asked.

Eric and Tagh took the time to explain as much to Agar and Malaya as they could about what would happen to Malaya now she’d met her mate. They also promised to give them the wordings for the oath and set aside a time after this mess ended so they could have their own bonding ceremony.

“Does this mean Malaya may turn into a rogue if the ceremony isn’t completed soon? How soon?” Agar asked.

“I’ve known Eric for about three months, and you can tell how badly it’s affecting me.” Tagh lifted his hand and held it so they could see the tremble. “It’s like I need to go out and cause some damage and I don’t even care what—or who—might get hurt in the process. I’m lucky because Eric and I have already bonded sexually. We basically only need the vows and oaths now for it all to be good again. As much as we would prefer to be out with the scouts searching for Jory right now, we know we need to get our ceremony completed or I won’t be able to function. I might become reckless, and a reckless Draconian Warrior is not something anyone would want in their hunting party.”

“It’ll all be over soon.” Eric sat back beside his mate and snuggled in. “I promise we won’t let you go all psycho killer on us. Have no doubts whatsoever that you will find Jory.”

When Tagh gave a chuckle over the psycho killer comment, Eric knew he’d said the right words to make everything better.